Happy blogiversary to me :)

Well it’s officially been a year since I started blogging again. Thanks to my readers and pinners who have visited my site. I have a couple new recipes to share. First one of my favorite things to eat. Chicken Chow Mein. Since moving to Oklahoma I haven’t been able to find a good Chinese restaurant. If anybody knows a good 0ne in the Lawton/Fort Sill area I would really appreciate the suggestion. Anyway, since I get a hankering for Chinese quite often I decided to add another recipe to the mix. The other one that I make is this orange chicken. Orange chicken is my husbands favorite and I really only make it when he’s here to eat it. Don’t get me wrong I like it too but it’s not on my short list when we go out for Chinese.

Ingredients:
source: Favorite Family Recipes

2-3 Boneless Chicken Breast

1/4 c. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh ginger, grated
ground black pepper, to taste
2-3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
3 (5.6 oz) packages refrigerated Yaki Soba noodles (found in the produce section of the grocery store) (or you can find the dried Yaki Soba noodles. They are cheaper but you do have to cook them according to the package)
2/3 c. chopped celery (chopped diagonally)
1 medium-sized onion, thinly sliced
2 c. cabbage, thinly sliced

Directions

In a small bowl combine soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and black pepper. Set aside.

Cook or grill chicken with a bit of salt and pepper. When done set aside to add to the noodle mix later. Or you can use leftover chicken from a previous meal.
Remove Yaki Soba from packages and discard included flavoring packets. Rinse noodles well, drain, and set aside.(this is for the Yaki Soba noodles that are already prepared)
Heat oil in a large wok or skillet. Add celery and onion and saute for about 1-2 minutes or until onions start to become soft and transparent. Add cabbage and saute an additional minute or so.
Toss Yaki Soba noodles and soy sauce mixture with the vegetables over medium-high heat for an additional 2-3 minutes or until noodles are heated through. Add cooked chicken and heat just enough to warm it. Not too long or the chicken may dry out. 

 

What’s an anniversary without dessert? I had some really ripe bananas sitting on my counter and what better way to use them. You could make this banana bread or you could make chocolate chip banana cupcakes. The original recipe is one that I found on All Recipes. It was for 2 8 inch cake pans. This makes about 2 1/2 dozen cupcakes.

 

Chocolate Chip Banana cupcakes with Vanilla frosting

source: All recipes

Ingredients

2  1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 pinch salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 cup buttermilk

1 pkg. chocolate chips, I used milk chocolate

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 – 8 inch round pans. Or prepare cupcake tin with paper liners.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter, white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in the bananas. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into the prepared pans or scoop batter into cupcake tin. Fill 2/3 full with batter.
For cake bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes for cupcakes back for 18-22 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean and tops are golden brown. Mine took 20 minutes. Allow to cool before frosting cupcakes.

Nothing fancy vanilla frosting

Ingredients: makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes, about 1 cup frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons milk, I had to use a bit more
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a bowl of a mixer combine the sugar, butter, milk and vanilla. Start mixing slowly so that sugar doesn’t go all over the place and then increase speed to medium speed until smooth and fluffy add more milk if needed.

 

Thanks again for an awesome year. I will be posting tomorrow to so you all my latest creation using my new sewing machine.

 

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A Happy Birthday and a Pillow

Just a quick post to say that I am busy sewing away getting things ready for my etsy shop :). But we did celebrate a birthday in this house. My middle boy turned 9 last week. He requested a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting just like his brother but it had to be blue. Okay no problem I can do that. I used this cake and frosting recipe again, it never fails me.

I also finished up a little project for my daughter. A while back I embroidered this sweet strawberry shortcake with plans on making it a throw pillow. Throw pillow forms can be pricey so I went to the goodwill and found an ugly throw pillow but it was in great conditions. It still had the tag on it but I bought it for $1.99. I used some fabric that I had in my stash. I love the way it turned out!

The back is minky dot fabric, oh so soft but a pain to sew. It’s so slippery. Oh well not perfect in the back but I don’t think that Cierra will care.

Happy Birthday to our Little Diva

Well we celebrated Cierra’s 5th birthday this week. She had a sleepover last night and a little get together today. Her real birthday was this past Wednesday and when it’s your special day in this house you get to choose whatever you want to eat that day and your choice of cake flavors.  Cierra’s choices for her special day was powdered donuts for breakfast. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch and Chicken Avocado Soup with flour tortillas. It’s 112° here in Oklahoma. Who wants to eat soup? My crazy kid does. Well I had to make the birthday girl what she wanted but rest assured I had the fan pointing right at the dinner table and the air conditioner on for sure.

 15 Minute Donuts makes about 30 Donut Holes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 Tbsp melted butter

2 cups vegetable oil, for frying

Granulated sugar, cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar, for coating

Directions:

Preheat oil over medium heat in a 10 inch non-stick fry-pan (keeping an eye on it as it is heating).  In a small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together milk, buttermilk, sugar and melted butter.  Using a fork stir in dry ingredients and mix just until combine (think of making biscuit dough, you just want to incorporate the ingredients).

Once the oil has reached 350 degrees, measure out 1/2 tablespoonfuls dough and using your hands gently roll into a ball (gently rolling to keep them fluffy, think of rolling something really fragile.  Again this is like a biscuit dough you don’t want to overwork it).  Gently place dough ball into oil and fry until golden brown on bottom then flip and cook reverse side until golden brown.  Carefully remove with metal tongs or a fork and drain onto a paper towel lined plate.  Roll in sugar. Repeat this process with remaining dough (you can fit about 8 donuts in the pan at once if you can work that fast =).  Note: these are best enjoyed the day they are made.

 Source: Cooking Classy

Honey Oatmeal Sandwich Bread makes 2 9×5 inch loaves

Ingredients:

2 cups boiling water

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup honey

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons salt

1 package of active dry yeast(2 1/4 tsp)

½ cup warm water (110 degrees F)

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour*

3 ½ to 4 cups bread flour**

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons honey

handful of rolled oats

1. In large mixing bowl (stand mixer bowl if you have one), combine boiling water to oats, honey, butter and salt. Let stand 1 hour.
2. In small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
3. Pour the yeast mixture into the oats mixture. Combine wheat flour and bread flour in separate bowl. Add 2 cups of flour mixture to oats mixture and combine well. Continue adding flour mixture to mixing bowl by ½ cup increments until dough pulls together. This will happen when between 5 ½ & 6 cups of flour has been added. You may not need the last ½ cup of flour.
4. When the dough has pulled together, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Or add your bread hook to your mixer and knead for a few minutes.
5. Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hr. (I preheat the oven for about 5 minutes then turn it off, make sure it’s warm but not hot and put the bowl in there to rise, this seemed to work best because for this recipe is there is much more flour than yeast).
6. Deflate the dough and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into two equal pieces and form into loaves. Place in 9 x 5 greased loaf pans and cover with damp cloth & let rise again until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. (I return the pans to the oven for this step too.)
7. Preheat oven to 375. While oven is preheating mix milk and honey together in mug and microwave for about 20 seconds. Brush warm milk mixture over loaves and generously sprinkle with rolled oats.
8. Bake loaves at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool before removing from pans.

** I use half bread flour and half All purpose flour, a total of up to 6 cups. Only because I don’t have wheat flour in my pantry yet.

Chicken Avocado Soup source: My friend Christina

1 1/2 TBS olive oil

1 white onion, diced fairly big

8 cloves garlic, minced

2-4 jalapeno, sliced

1 Qt. chicken stock

chicken breast, diced; or I use leftover chicken and shred it

1/4 c fresh lime juice

1 tomato, diced

1 avocado, diced

salt and pepper to taste

cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Saute jalapeno and onion for 3-4 minutes and garlic and saute another minute or so. Stir in chicken stock, chicken, lime juice, salt and pepper. Gently simmer until chicken is done. In the last few minutes of cooking add avocado and cilantro. Add more salt and pepper if desired. Serve with flour tortillas.

Flour Tortillas:

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c All purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 c Hot water

1/4 c shortening, butter, or lard (using butter tastes better than shortening but tortillas get hard quick)

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients into a bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry cutter until flour mix resembles a coarse mill. Add hot water mix until just combined.Knead for 3 minutes. Dough should be fairly stiff but easy to work with. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Divide dough into 12 equal balls. Roll each ball out super thin. Cook on a dry nonstick skillet over medium high heat. When cooking tortillas bubbles should form on top, once top starts to form bubbles flip tortilla and allow to cook until light brown circles form on the 2nd side. Place cooked tortillas in a tortilla warmer or in a clean kitchen towel wrapped in foil. Serve immediately while they are warm.

For her party I made 4 different types of pizza, cheese, pepperoni, sausage and buffalo chicken along with a side salad. She wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and roses on her cake. This is what I came up with. I am pretty proud but let me tell you buttercream frosting is not my friend in August. It was so soft that I had to put it in the freezer to cool it down enough just so I could frost the darn thing. It was good and oh so pretty if I do say so myself. Cierra loved it too, that’s all that really matters anyway right?!

Strawberry Layer Cake

Yield: 3 x 8″ round layers

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups (12 oz/350 g) granulated sugar

1 (3 oz/85 g) package strawberry flavored gelatin (such as Jell-O)

1 cup (8 oz/227 g) butter, softened

4 eggs (room temperature)

3 cups (10.5 oz/300 g) sifted cake & pastry flour

1 tablespoon (15 mL/17 g) baking powder

3/4 teaspoon (3.75 mL/5 g) salt

1 cup (236 ml/8 liquid oz) whole milk, room temperature

1 tablespoon (15 ml) pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup (2 liquid oz/4.5 oz/130 g) strawberry puree made from frozen strawberries (puree itself should be closer to room temp, not frozen or icy)

Method:

1. 1. If you’re making your own strawberry puree, remove frozen strawberries (about 2 handfuls) from freezer and place in a single layer in a flat dish to thaw slightly. Place into food processor and puree the strawberries until smooth. Stir to ensure it is nice and smooth and not icy. Measure out 1/4 cup for cake and 3 tablespoons for frosting, and freeze the remaining puree for another use.

2.Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter, line with parchment, and flour three round 8-inch pans, tapping out the excess. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl or measuring cup, combine and stir the milk, strawberry puree, and the vanilla. Set aside.

4. Sift and whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl, and set aside.

5. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the sugar, gelatin, and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy–about 5 minutes.

6. Add the eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with spatula.

7. Add the wet & dry ingredients to the creamed mixture by alternating–beginning and ending with dry ingredients and mixing just enough after each addition to incorporate, but not overmix.

8. Divide the batter in three, spreading it evenly with a small offset palette knife. If you have a kitchen scale, weigh each pan filled with batter, to ensure 3 even layers.

9. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes clean when inserted into the center. Be so careful to not overbake. Check cakes at 20 minutes, but not before, and once you feel it’s almost ready, set the timer for 2 minute intervals. Let cool on racks for 10 minutes before loosening the sides with a small metal spatula, and invert onto greased wire racks. Gently turn cakes back up, so the tops are up and cool completely.

10. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days, refrigerator for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 2 months. Best eaten day one.

Whipped Strawberry Frosting (or, shall we call it Strawberry Ice Cream Frosting?)

Ingredients:

3 sticks + 2 tablespoons (13 oz/375 g) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes

4 cups sifted (18 oz/500 g) confectioners’ sugar (icing, powdered)

1 tablespoon (15 mL) milk

1 1/2 teaspoon (7.5 mL) pure vanilla extract

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons strawberry puree made from frozen strawberries (if you want the frosting seed-free, you can put the puree through a sieve before adding to frosting)

Method

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for 8 minutes on medium speed (I use “4” on my KitchenAid). Butter will become very pale & creamy.

2. Add remaining ingredients, except strawberry puree, and mix on low-speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 6 minutes. Frosting will be very light, creamy, and fluffy.

3. Add strawberry puree (can be cool, but not frozen or icy) and mix until incorporated.

4. Best used right away, but can be covered in an airtight container at room temperature for a day or so.

*I colored my frosting with Winton gel dye. A mix of red and pink.

Quick Dessert

For the most part I try to make my cakes and cupcakes from scratch these days, but with the small stockpile of cake mixes I’ve acquired I’d better use them right? Plus they come in handy in a pinch. But I’m not talking about making cupcakes according to the box….oh no that just wont do. How about a twist?

Box Cake Up-Do

Makes 24 cupcakes

1 box devil’s food cake mix (I used Dunkin Hines)

1 small package Jello instant chocolate pudding  mix

1 cup buttermilk, (you can also use sour cream if you don’t have buttermilk)

1 cup vegetable oil (I used canola because that’s what I had on hand)

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup  milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl of a mixer put together everything  except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop batter into cupcake pan lined with cupcake papers or silicone cupcake liners. Place in oven and bake according to package. Check with a toothpick. If cupcake needs a bit more baking then check after another 3-5 min. Cool in pan a few minutes before completely cooling on wire rack.

Frost and enjoy 🙂

 

 

Valentine goodies continued

Here are a couple of the other things I made for the day of love.

Butterfinger Cupcakes

Yield: 24 cupcakes Ingredients: For the cupcakes: 1½ cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour 2 tsp. baking powder ¼ tsp. salt 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature 1½ cups plus 2 tbsp. sugar 4 eggs Scant 1 cup mashed ripe banana 2/3 cup buttermilk 12 fun size Butterfinger bars, cut in half

For the frosting: 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened ½ cup creamy peanut butter 3¼ cups confectioners’ sugar 1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

For garnish: 4 fun size Butterfinger bars, coarsely chopped

Directions: To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt; whisk together and set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce the mixer speed to medium low and add in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Mix in the mashed banana until well combined.  With the mixer on low speed alternately add the dry ingredients and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing only until just incorporated.

Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 to ¾ full.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes.  Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter and peanut butter until smooth.  Slowly mix in the confectioners’ sugar, beating until smooth and well blended.  Mix in the whipped topping until smooth and fluffy.

To assemble the cupcakes, place a candy bar half on top of each cooled cupcake.  Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip and pipe onto the cupcakes, covering the candy bar completely.  (I used a large, unlabeled star tip to frost these cupcakes.) Sprinkle with chopped candy bars for garnish.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Yield: approximately 18 sandwich cookies, but depends entirely on the size of hearts you make.

For the cookies:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp. cocoa powder

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 oz. red food coloring

Ingredients:

For the frosting

8 oz. cream cheese

5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions: Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.

Using a heart template cut out from card stock, trace evenly spaced hearts onto pieces of parchment paper sized to fit two cookie sheets.  Place the parchment on the cookie sheets so that the side you have drawn on is facing down; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the egg until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Blend in the vanilla.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in about a third of the dry ingredients, followed by half of the buttermilk, beating each addition just until incorporated.  Repeat so that all the buttermilk has been added and then mix in the final third of dry ingredients.  Do not overbeat.  Blend in the food coloring.

Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip.  Pipe the batter onto the parchment paper using the heart tracings as a guide.  Bake 7-9 minutes or until the tops are set, rotating the baking sheets halfway through.  Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets at least 10 minutes, until they can be easily transferred to a cooling rack.  Repeat with any remaining batter.  Allow cookies to cool completely before proceeding.

To make the cream cheese frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.

Transfer the frosting to a clean pastry bag fitted with a plain, round tip.  Pair the cookies up by shape and size.

Pipe filling onto flat side of one cookie and place another cookie on top. To store, refrigerate in an airtight container.

Milk Chocolate covered strawberries (for  my hubby)

1 cup Milk chocolate chips

1Tbs. shortening

In a double boiler melt chocolate chips and shortening til smooth. Holding strawberry by leaves, dip into chocolate and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Let harden for about an 1hr. Eat or store in refrigerator.

Sources:

Butterfinger cupcakes- Annie Eats

Red Velvet whoopie pies – Annie Eats